Grant Communications Stations Dark for Dish Subs

A dispute over retransmission consent terms between Grant Communicationsand Dish Network has shut off the Grant stations' signal in Roanoke, Huntsville,Davenport and LaCrosse (Wis.). Four Fox affiliates, two CW outlets and oneMyNetworkTV station are affected. The station signals went dark early in themorning Feb. 16; looming for the Fox affiliates is the Daytona 500 telecast Feb24.

A statement on the WZDX Huntsville homepage read in part:

"Please rest assured our entire management staffs areworking around the clock, trying to come to an agreement with the Dish Networkcomparable to all our other cable agreements. However, Dish continues to notanswer our phone calls or meet with our negotiating team, dragging out theprocess at their own pace."

"We are disappointed that Grant has chosen to be unreasonable in itsdemands, as many Dish customers in the Grant markets enjoy their Foxprogramming," said Sruta Vootukuru, Dish director ofprogramming. "Grant's request that Dish pay three times what itpaid just over a year ago is well beyond market rates, and we hopeGrant will become more reasonable so we can make these channelsavailable to our customers."

Said Debbie Reardon, Grant's director of marketing, "Wehope to have a solution at any moment."

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